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Sanford officials outline years of housing work and dozens of new units
Summary
City leaders and housing partners summarized a multi‑year strategy that used tax increment financing, land‑banking and coordinated navigation to spur roughly 395 completed or under‑construction units and about 228 pending projects, and described plans for a 30‑unit Housing First project.
City Manager Steven Buck and housing partners on Thursday summarized more than a decade of work to expand Sanford’s housing stock, reporting a surge in new units and outlining tools the city has used to incentivize private development.
Buck, who opened the fourth annual housing forum, traced the city’s housing efforts to a 2012 budget review that identified a high share of older converted rental units and low per‑unit valuations. He said the city created a community development position in 2016 and first used tax increment financing (TIF) that year for Saint Ignatius, a conversion that officials said would not have moved forward without the incentive.
“Think of housing as both a noun and a verb,” Buck said, urging the audience to consider both the physical units and the action of housing people. He said Sanford has averaged just over 200 new units a year for the last five years and described current totals the city is tracking: about 395 approved or under‑construction units and 228 pending projects, which together would bring the total of partnered units to roughly 623 once pending projects progress.
Jamie Cole, director of codes and planning, said the department corrected an occupancy‑permit figure and reported 142 occupancy permits for four‑plus unit properties (previously recorded incorrectly). Cole said the city has issued about 200 units’ worth of building permits and another roughly 175–180 units approved at planning board level, producing about 600 units in the pipeline over a 12‑month span.
Developers and the city described how financing gaps have been closed. Rob Rankin of Rancorp said the Central Park Residences project used a TIF and a Maine State Housing award through the rural rental housing program to make the development feasible. Rankin described durable, energy‑efficient units with solar, heat pumps and keyless locks in the buildings at 10 and 12 School Street and said the second phase at 14 School Street will be market rate pending improved financing conditions.
Sanford Housing Authority deputy director Jen Wolett summarized the authority’s portfolio—719 Housing Choice vouchers, several LIHTC properties, and two public‑housing properties recently converted to Section 8—and described a housing‑navigation team that has housed 142 people since February 2024 through a mix of project‑based vouchers, preference vouchers and other subsidies.
Assistant City Manager Michelle Labrie described the Land Bank process: code enforcement issues trigger a notice of violation, owners have 30 days to respond and possibly submit a corrective‑action plan, and the city may pursue hearings, declaration as dangerous/hazardous and abatement. Labrie cited recent land‑bank cases such as 58 Pleasant Street and 8 York Street that the city moved through foreclosure and demolition steps.
During a question‑and‑answer period, a resident asked how the city’s housing growth compared with RKG market projections. Buck said RKG projected about 1,700 new residents and 717 living units in the relevant planning horizon, and that Sanford’s current activity is outpacing those projections; he also acknowledged that the city provides some funding to housing programs but did not provide a comprehensive funding breakdown during the forum.
The forum closed with officials urging continued coordination among the city, housing authorities, service providers and private developers to convert units into homes and to focus on prevention and navigation for people at risk of homelessness.
